Visual artist Katharine Montstream reserved tickets for Thursday night's appearance at the Flynn Center by Donald Trump, and plans to walk out soon after the Republican candidate for president takes the stage.

Shyla Nelson will stay far away from Trump’s talk. The opera singer and environmental activist is so opposed to what she calls the candidate’s “message of hate” that she believes the Flynn should cancel his appearance.

Like Montstream, guitarist Paul Asbell reserved tickets for Trump’s appearance, and debated whether he’d play a previously scheduled concert, attend Trump’s speech as a form of protest, or swallow ground glass. He eventually decided to play the show down the street at The Gryphon, and joked that the swallowing-glass option might be his second choice. (The fact that the Trump campaign has doled out 20,000 or so tickets to the event, more than 10 times the capacity of the Flynn, means thousands who reserved a spot might not get in.)

Artists in Burlington were quick to respond after Trump’s campaign announced New Year’s Eve that he would appear Thursday at the Flynn. Many who posted on Facebook expressed dismay that the candidate whose controversial positions include a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States is coming to their community that’s known for its all-inclusive views.

The arrival of Trump impacts the Burlington arts community in one other significant way: He’s appearing at the Flynn Center, the matriarch of the city’s arts scene.

Most of the region’s artists have attended performances at the Flynn, some have performed there and many have either taken or taught classes through the venue’s FlynnArts program. There’s a sense of ownership of the Flynn within the Burlington arts community, and those who oppose Trump’s views have found themselves conflicted that the venue is hosting a candidate whose positions they view as harmful.

Artists also favor free speech and free expression. Trump’s visit to Burlington has forced many artists to evaluate their positions on what they see as free speech vs. hate speech.

“This is not for me a First Amendment issue,” said Nelson, the singer who grew up in the Burlington area and now splits her time between the Champlain and Connecticut River valleys. “This is an ethical issue related to how we protect and serve our community from threat and potential danger.”

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Shyla Nelson, shown in Burlington in 2012.(Photo: FREE PRESS FILE)

Nelson posted an “open letter” Saturday on Facebook to John Killacky, the Flynn’s executive director, urging him “in service to your community and to the advancement of a peaceful world for all, to cancel this booking.” She said in a phone conversation Wednesday that she loves the Flynn, which she called the largest performing-arts venue in the state that serves the most diverse population in Vermont.

“As such I believe it has a responsibility to its constituents to make programming choices that reflect sensitively the community it serves,” Nelson said. “By giving this man the stage and giving this man’s message full voice in that hall it inevitably signals tacit approval of his message in the same way that housing the Vermont Symphony Orchestra or Ladysmith Black Mambazo or Sweet Honey in the Rock or Arlo Guthrie signals this is something the Flynn has decided has intrinsic value to the community.” She said she wonders how the Flynn could have decided “that this man’s message of hate which has a direct threatening impact on members of the community” could have intrinsic value.

Killacky points to an Internal Revenue Service code regarding nonprofit entities such as the Flynn, which states that such organizations “are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign,” and violation of the code “may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status.” The Flynn hosted a fundraiser for Democratic Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy in 2004, a Burlington mayoral-candidate panel in 2012 and a Vermont gubernatorial forum last fall, and Killacky said those events indicated that the Flynn could not reject Trump’s request to rent the theater.

“I felt it was really important to be open to different viewpoints,” according to Killacky, “and it’s irrelevant what I think about Mr. Trump.”

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John Killacky, executive director of the Flynn Center, speaks in 2010 at FlynnSpace in Burlington.(Photo: FREE PRESS FILE)

Community reaction on Facebook was initially strong against Killacky’s decision. He said he dealt with similar feedback in the past, as in the 1990s when he was at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and U.S. senators joined the clamor against performances by controversial artist Karen Finley.

“Living through that was hard and harsh but it sort of is not dissimilar,” according to Killacky. “It comes with the job.”

More recent Facebook posts have supported the Flynn’s executive director. “There’s been a lot of emotion, a lot of anger, a lot of passion on all sides of the issue,” Killacky said. “People have been eloquent in their opposition as well as support. For those that feel like the trust in the community has been broken by the Flynn, I hope we can earn that trust back by our intention and good action.”

Though the Flynn posts upcoming performances on its Main Street marquee, Trump's name isn't up there. That's only because confirmation of his appearance came in so late, according to Killacky. "In no way are we embarrassed that we are hosting the Trump campaign," he said.

Montstream has been one of those artists who has come to Killacky’s defense, even as she opposes Trump’s visit.

“I thought, ‘Wow, what an incredible classy space that has been this home for incredible art,’ so it was disappointing to think he would be speaking there because I don’t agree with his bigotry, his racism,” said the artist known for her Vermont landscape paintings. “I wish he was speaking in the Kmart parking lot with a really cold north wind. I’m not glad he’s at the Flynn, but at the same time I explicitly trust John Killacky and his decisions. He knows what he’s doing, and this isn’t his first rodeo.”

Nelson wants the Flynn to cancel Trump’s talk but doesn’t want to hold his appearance against the organization. “I believe the Flynn has made a mistake in allowing this event,” Nelson said, “but it does not diminish my regard for the institution.”

Montstream acknowledged that Trump’s appearance has tested many artists’ feelings toward the rights of free expression. “It definitely puts us all between a rock and a hard place, because you don’t really want to support this kind of speech where he’s being disrespectful to a large population of people,” she said. “This town has an incredible reputation for being open to all kinds, so I have to hope that something good will come out of this.”

Asbell, the guitarist known for his work with the fusion-jazz group Kilimanjaro as well as the Unknown Blues Band, said he is all about the First Amendment.

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Paul Asbell performs at the First Congregational Church Sanctuary during First Night Burlington on Thursday, December 31, 2015.(Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)

“I’m personally quite a free-speech proponent,” Asbell said. “Free speech cuts a lot of different ways. Just because the clown on stage is the one on stage doesn’t mean he’s the only one who gets to self-express.”

Asbell, though, doesn’t believe that Trump’s motivations are all about defending his right to free speech. “In First Amendment terms, Trump should be able to speak anyplace, any time. In real-world terms this is not about him expressing himself; this is a media event that he’s clearly trying to create,” according to Asbell. “His aim is entirely theatrical, a media spectacle, so it needs to be seen that way.”

Asbell will be performing a show from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday at The Gryphon — Trump-related traffic permitting, he notes. He’s pretty sure Trump won’t swing by the restaurant before or after his speech a few hundred feet up Main Street at the Flynn.

“I already declared it to be a Trump-free zone,” Asbell said.

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.